Events

What Is A ‘Hybrid Employee?’

DENVER (CBS4) – Tool on down the road in a Toyota Prius and you might be doing something similar to what your boss wants you to do — two different things. At one point a gasoline engine, at others driven by electrical power. As much as many workers want to be the 452 cubic inch engine of their company, that’s just not the most efficient way of getting there these days. Send out the birth announcements and welcome the birth of a new term; “hybrid employee.”

“If you have a specific skill; let’s say in human resources, well if you have skills in special events, in planning, in marketing, in online in social media, as well as supervision and budgeting and things of that sort, you’re going to be rewarded for those skills,” he said.

Maybe rewarded with a job. It may be a different idea for job seekers.

“My resume’s basically been one or the other,” said job shopper Tim Culbertson.

But he’s been a sales rep and manager.

“With me you’re getting two people for the price of one,” Culbertson said.

“A lot of people already have a lot of skills that they’re not thinking about,” Hudson said. “I meet with a lot of job seekers who I say, ‘Well let me see your resume,’ and they show me a really good resume for a sales person. But when I start asking them do you have project management experience, do you have special event experience, do you have marketing experience?”

“We look for people who are willing and able to do multiple things,” said Diana Mead, president and CEO of Allonhill in Denver. “I really believe this company’s grown because of the people that we’ve had and their willingness to go above and beyond whatever it takes.”

The company has grown so much evaluating loans and securities for resale or purchase in the financial industry that it added 15 people in one day last week.

“We’re looking for those type of hybrid employees that can adapt to any type of project,” said Natalie Corrado, a woman who has branched out in human resources and as a vendor manager.

Worker Christopher Pritchard was brought in to write the code for the software Allonhill workers use to look at the loans. It wasn’t long before the company was asking him if he knew how to develop a web application to allow workers to communicate better with each other. It’s been a challenge he’s enjoyed. He’s gained confidence at work.

“I do like being able to do multiple things instead of focusing on just the one item,” Pritchard said.

Many colleges and universities understand the need, according to Hudson. He pointed to Colorado State University’s Global Campus as being one good place to get needed additional course work that can add another dimension to a job applicant’s resume. Many other schools have online components that can help.

“I think number one is understanding technology right now,” Hudson said.

Companies seem to reflect this.

“We actually have to use outsource recruiters to find good developers to build out our systems here,” Mead said.

Web development people are still hard to find — at least the ones that may understand other aspects of Allonhill’s business. Combine those and your resume may just get to the top of the pile of the thousand resumes they can get in a week.